Rock Climbing News

Read here about all the latest rock climbing news--the hardest redpoints, the most astonishing onsights, the wildest trad climbs, and the boldest solos. If it's a ground-breaking rock climb, we've got all the details.

We saw a father and son team who still had tags on their harnesses. The dad saw our racks and said, "You guys have a lot of stuff, you must be pretty good at this." He then asked us how you get the rope up to the anchor.

July 1, 2015 - A new deep-water soloing, or psicobloc, competition will be held in Quebec from July 3 to 5. Fifty climbers will compete for $4,000 in prize money at the Chewpod Extrême Bloc 2015 competition.

5/22/15 - The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee has announced its shortlist for sports to be included as additional events in the 2020 Olympic games. Climbing, along with seven other sports, made the cut, down from the original list of 26 that applied.

"My friend was the last person up our toprope and was cleaning the anchors. He intended to rappel, but he failed to feed both strands of rope through his tube style-belay device, only clipping catching one strand instead. As soon as he leaned back, the rope started zipping through the anchor."

Jens Holsten and Vern Nelson Jr. have climbed a new route on the north face of Argonaut Peak in Washington’s Stuart Range and dedicated it to the late Chad Kellogg. Holsten was with Kellogg when he was killed by rockfall while descending from the summit of Fitz Roy in February 2014.

On March 7, 2015 Chris Sharma made the first ascent of El Bon Combat at Cova de Ocell near Barcelona, at a proposed grade of 5.15b/c. This is Sharma's hardest FA to date, and if the grade is confirmed, one of the five hardest routes in the world.

"In my early climbing career, I nearly killed myself when I extended an anchor over an edge with just one long sling. After one climb, the sling was halfway cut through. I still carry the section on my keychain as a reminder."

3/17/15 - Ashima Shiraishi has climbed Open Your Mind Direct 9a+ (5.15a) in Santa Linya, Spain. Shiraishi climbed the route in a mere four days of attempts. While the original consensus grade of the route was 5.14d, a broken hold has lead some to suggest it could now be as hard as 5.15a. If the grade holds, she will be the first woman to climb a confirmed 5.15.

"I was at the gym when I saw a guy “self-belaying” on toprope. He was tied into one side of the rope and he had a tube-style belay device clipped to his belay loop, which was attached to the free-hanging side of the rope. He would climb up five feet or so, pull the slack through his device, then continue up. I stopped him as soon as I saw what was going on."

3/13/15 - Mason Earle has redpointed a 35-meter overhanging finger crack in Bartlett Wash, outside Moab, Utah, and called it 5.14-, undoubtedly one of the hardest pure crack climbs in the United States.

"I was belaying my 2-year-old at the gym, and I overheard an employee giving an orientation to two new climbers behind me. The employee said something about climbing at the same time using the gym's autobelays. When my daughter was back on the ground, I turned and saw the new couple about to climb ON THE SAME AUTOBELAY! One of them was using the proper locking carabiner. The other was clipped into a regular carabiner that was only connected to the autobelay with some utility cord."

"We saw a smiling belayer that was taking pictures with a tablet. He was holding the device above his head with the rope still in his brake hand. I wonder, in the case of a fall, if his reflexes would make him save the tablet or the leader."

Nearly 40 years after they made the first real attempts to free-climb El Capitan, Mark Hudon and Max Jones are ticking El Cap routes once again and aiming for in-a-day routes and the big prize: an all-free ascent.

"I saw this guy rapping off Intersection Rock in Joshua Tree. His rope didn't reach the ground, but it was long enough to reach a big ledge most people walk off. I didn’t think much of it. He looked like he was going pretty fast though, so I stopped to see what he was doing. He was about to pass the ledge and was coming to the end of his rope when I yelled, 'Stop! Hey! Your rope's not on the ground!' My buddies quickly chimed in. He stopped just in time to swing to the ledge and not rap off the end of his rope, which wasn’t knotted."

The 12th annual “Mountain Gear Presents: Red Rock Rendezvous” (RRR) rock climbing festival will give participants an opportunity to climb with the world’s best professional rock climbers in a unique venue at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas, Nev., Friday through Sunday, March 27-29. The event will host 45 professional rock climbers from the North Face, Black Diamond, La Sportiva, Petzl, Blue Water, Five Ten, Metolious and Osprey. Athletes will coach festival participants in half-day climbing clinics designed to improve intermediate and advanced rock climbing and mountain biking skills.

As he winds up a short trip to Spain, Sachi Amma of Japan can look back on one of the greatest stretches of redpointing in sport climbing history. In less than three weeks, Amma, 25, has done six routes 5.14d or harder, including two 9a+ (5.15a) routes and his first 9b (5.15b).

In a very impressive fundraiser, the Red River Gorge Fixed Gear Ethics Initiative has raised enough money to subsidize the replacement of 1,000 bolts in the Red River Gorge. And there's still plenty of time for more. If you'd like to donate to the improvement and maintenance of fixed gear in the Red, visit the Red River Gorge Fixed Gear Fund. The group is having great giveaways for donors every day until February 14.

1/14/15 - At 3:30 p.m. pacific time, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson summited El Capitan, completing their years-long quest to free climb the Dawn Wall. They spent 19 days on the wall. This has been called the hardest big wall free climb to date, and is truly a historic achievement that may not be repeated for years to come.

1/13/15 - Just a few days ago Kevin Jorgeson's success on the Dawn Wall seemed questionable. He'd been stuck on pitch 15 for seven days. His finger skin was shredded. It seemed like he may have hit his high point. Since then, Jorgeson has erased any doubts about his ability to get to the top of the 3,000-foot face. He fired off pitch 15, went on to stick the notorious dyno on pitch 16, and then kept his momentum and caught up to partner Tommy Caldwell on Wino Tower at pitch 20 in a matter of days. This puts all of the 5.14 and 5.13 pitches behind the team, besides one 5.13a boulder problem nears the top of the wall. The majority of the remaining pitches are 5.11 and 5.12, all relatively easy compared to what the duo has already accomplished.